H-E-B, city discuss store; while food co-op explored for Southtown

Pessimism may be riding high concerning downtown San Antonio and the viability of a grocery store, but don’t include the city and a group of mostly Southtown residents, both of which are heavily exploring opening a store, among the negative thinkers.

Recently, the city and H-E-B discussed the possibility of a store, according to Deputy City Manager Pat DiGiovanni.

“A number of us have had conversations with H-E-B, and I think there’s a genuine interest to take a look at it, but it has to be economically viable,” DiGiovanni said.

Whether the city would come to an exclusive agreement with H-E-B, or whether H-E-B would be one of several companies considered in a request for proposals format, has not been determined, as well as a site for a store.

“It really depends on what the proposition is,” DiGiovanni said. “There may be somebody out there that has a place in mind. It might be that they need that to make (a store) happen, or to (build a store) on land we own. It really depends.”

A similar grocery initiative is underway, but at the grassroots level. A group of mostly Southtowners are exploring the possibility of a grocery store by way of a co-op, short for cooperative, or a business owned by its members.

“We are trying to get a neighborhood grocery co-op for downtown and surrounding areas,” said Martha Benton, a King William resident who started exploring a co-op in late July by posting fliers at various Southtown establishments. There are now about 80 people on the group’s e-mail list.

Since the Handy Andy on South Presa Street closed in 2004, and H-E-B left the area in 2008, the neighborhoods just south of downtown  King William, Lavaca, and surrounding communities  have not had a grocery store. Benton said this is the void the group is looking to fill.

The group has met three times, mostly to get familiar with the ins and outs of co-ops. For example, most co-ops are for-profit, are run by a board of directors, and are autonomous. The group is close to selecting a steering committee. One of the committee’s first orders of business would be to write a mission statement and to form sub-committees.

At the group’s meeting last week, one of the organizers said the store doesn’t necessarily have to have a healthy or anti-corporation bent, like what is associated with the term “co-op.”

“It doesn’t have to be seen as a counter-culture type of thing,” Susana Canseco said. “It’s about the kind of store we want in our community.”

If the group decides to see this thing through, there are several hurdles it must clear, most of which are financial. Benton said co-ops depend on several funding sources, including membership fees, member equity loans, grants, small business loans, and additional lending from banks and foundations specifically geared toward cooperatives.

Paying for a feasibility study, Benton said, would be one of the group’s first objectives, and could be conducted as early as six months, at a cost of $10-$15,000, should the group decide it really wants to do this.

The project has garnered the attention of the UTSA School of Architecture. During the summer, Rick Lewis, a senior lecturer at the school, saw one of Benton’s fliers at The Filling Station on South St. Mary’s Street. Now, his students have taken on the co-op as a design project.

“Young architects need to see the makings of the sausage, to see what it takes to bring projects to life,” Lewis said. “In the end result, we would be able to give them something that would helpfully propel them to more of a physical reality.”

Lewis added that the students’ designs and site selections would not be applicable in the actual process of creating a store  “We make no pretense that student work can be used for an actual development project,” he said  but the work would at least help the group solidify its vision.

Benton said it usually takes at least two years, if not more, for a grocery co-op to be completed. She added one of the things that could help expedite the process is involvement and support from the city.

“It could happen so much more quickly if the city and the co-op group worked together, if the city had a property or if they would want to put in some financial investment,” Benton said.

So far, the group and the city have not connected, but Benton said that’s something the group will probably pursue. DiGiovanni said, although city officials have spoken to H-E-B official, the city will nudge other companies. “There’s a cast of characters that are out there,” he said.

One major rumor swirling around the downtown residents’ circle is that H-E-B is looking to acquire the land currently occupied by Univision station KWEX-41, 411 E. Durango Boulevard.

“I do not know of H-E-B’s interest in that property,” DiGiovanni said. “As you know it’s on the market, so you know it’s available. It’s a rather large site for a grocery store, but then again it could be parceled off, as well. But no, I don’t know of any direct interest in that.”

H-E-B would not comment for this story, but instead directed me to the now-infamous quote from Judge Nelson Wolff in a recent Express-News story on the subject: “People always bitch about why H-E-B hasn’t built a grocery store downtown, but there’s a good reason why. It’s because they’d lose their ass.”

I will be keeping close tabs on the Southtown grocery co-op and the findings of the UTSA students, and will be reporting the progress on this blog. One of the things I completely dug was how some of the discussions which take place on this blog are the same ones being discussed by the co-op group and the UTSA students. For example: site selection. At last week’s meeting, architecture senior Isaac Ojeda offered Broadway in the River North region as a possible area for locating a store. And it makes a ton of sense considering 1221 Broadway is back on line. But the consensus was that a Southtown site was preferred. Also, most also agreed that wherever the store is located, parking and a loading dock would be essential. These are the kind of juicy debates most of us love to be engaged in.

And so I throw it to you, the reader. What do you think about a grocery co-op, rather than a corporate type? Would you prefer a co-op rather than H-E-B? And does a store in Southtown make sense?